At first I didn't want to like the Walkmen. When I first heard of 'em, in the early-2000s when my college radio station (Washington State University's 90.7 KZUU!) received an advance of the band's debut album Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, I was much more into the French Kicks, who, I thought, shared a similar sound. But over the past six or seven odd years, the band has slowly become one of my favorites, thanks in part to their sharp live performances and frontman Hamilton Leithauser's wide vocal range (and, of course, our mutual love of Harry Nilsson).

And now they're on a streak: The Walkmen have cranked out a trio of startlingly well-crafted albums, starting with 2008's You & Me, then 2010's Lisbon and now Heaven. The new release marks the first time they've worked with a producer; the band, who self-produced their previous six LPs, tapped Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes) and decamped to his suburban Seattle studio to record last winter. The results are typically Walkmen—pinging guitars, rumbling rhythmic interplay and Leithauser's gritty blue-eyed soul crooning. But here they expand their sound, too, with hushed acoustic ditties and tightly-wound pop-rock jams. And it's their best sounding album yet.

I called up Hamilton at his Brooklyn pad recently to discuss bikini clad baristas, fatherhood and the road to Heaven.

What’s the biggest difference for you
between this album and the rest of the Walkmen’s catalog?

We approached
this with a professional attitude. I know how weird that sounds, but we had a schedule
in mind and we ended on schedule. I can’t f**king believe it, but we finished
the thing on time. From start to finish,
it came together. That, for us, is a completely different world. And it’s because we were working with Phil.
We never worked with a producer before. Phil kept us on schedule. We don’t have
a boss in our band, so it’s everybody lookin’ at each other and nothing’s
really moving forward. So having a head of the beast was good. It was surprising to see a calendar of how it
was going to go down. Every time we do a record, we’re just cramming at the end of
the session. But this time was fun.

Why did you guys decide to work with
Phil instead of self-producing again?

We’d done a
lot of records all on our own and it seemed like a fun idea to try and work
with somebody. It was always suggested to us when we were younger, but it was always
the dudes at Warner Brothers trying to railroad you onto a producer who was going
to spice things up; it didn’t sound like it was going to be that fun to do. But
we were talking about working with someone we like; we really, really like that
Fleet Foxes record, Helplessness Blues. It
had just come out and we all thought it sounded so great. Two days later Phil—he
produced it—called us and it seemed like a perfect fit. The first half of the
sessions was from Thanksgiving to just before Christmas. It was a long haul. Then the second half was
from January 5 to around Valentine’s Day.

Did you get any chances to explore the
city?

We took
Sundays off. But they actually had this big blizzard out in Seattle while we
were there. It was national news because they never have snow out there, so we
got a couple of snow days. People just folded
when it snowed. It was like a disaster movie. The streets were empty. In downtown you could hardly walk; there’s just
absolutely no one out there. One of those big buses was jackknifed and blocked the intersection with all the lights
off. No one was in it. It was surreal.

What was the one thing you absolutely
needed to have in the studio every day?

Have you
ever been up to those espresso shacks up there [in the Seattle area]?

You mean with the bikini-wearing baristas?

Yeah. There was a place on our corner. There were actually two of them on our corner on either side of the street. So every
morning you have this weird interaction at like 9:30 am with some girl wearing dental floss. You go back and forth because you feel so creepy. It was our
only place so we had to go every day, but at the same time you know you’re like
the regular customer so it starts feeling just sick after like a month, you
know? You really do, like the girl will recognize you... and you... you know, you
feel like such a sleazeball but you’re
just looking for a cup of coffee.

What was the hardest part of
recording this album?

Writing is
always harder than recording it. We wrote for at least a year by the time we
got to the studio. There’s a lot more frustration and absolute despair when you’re
writing. The recording just sort of rolled along. It was hard; there were
plenty of times when you’re disagreeing and things aren’t working out. But that
endless frustration is from writing.

What’s the songwriting process for
the Walkmen?

It’s
different now because [guitarist-keyboardist] Paul [Maroon] lives in New Orleans
and he’s a big contributor, so it’s a lot of e-mailing MP3s back and forth. It’s
a lot of dealing with stuff on your own. Today, I’m at a private space by
myself. We do a lot of work on our own.

Do you have a favorite song on Heaven?

I really
like “We Can’t Be Beat.” I was happy with the dry sound and I thought it
sounded very different for us. It sounded happy and fun, and it set a nice
tone. It sounds different from what
people would expect from the Walkmen. I wanted to sound like the Fleetwoods;
they’re one of my favorite bands, so I was trying to copy their sound a little
bit.

Any other bands that really
influenced this album?

The Pixies. I
was listening to the Pixies and the Amps, which is Kim Deal’s other band. They’re
really great.

The Breeder’s Title TK is one of my all-time favorite records...

Me too. And
that record gets so s**t on and it doesn’t deserve it. It’s really great. It
gets no credit. It’s weird.

Are there any lyrical themes on the
album?

It’s hard to
put your finger on. But on this record it was really satisfying to write a song
that has a chorus like, “I’m not your heartbreaker,” which is itself a pretty
bland line. But to write a song that’s really happy-sounding and then sing
lines like that... that’s what I was most excited about.

The album sounds
different for the Walkmen...

Yeah, it
does sound very different. I compared it with some songs from Lisbon and just immediately the tone is so
completely different. That’s because Phil is so good at getting a rich texture
to simple guitars. It’s a little more subtle, even the really loud stuff, which
for us is a little different. Because we slam away at it. That felt different.

What’s the idea behind the album
title?

It was originally
from a lyric from a song that didn’t make the record. It’s a little bit sad
because I really like that song. But that’s something that just goes that way.
We all thought the title sounded appropriate because it’s big, it’s positive
and it sounded a little serious too. It sounded a little heavy, which I thought
was appropriate. It seemed like a substantial record.

You’re a new parent—has
that had an effect on the record and your writing?

Ever since she was born I’ve written more songs that I’ve
liked than ever. I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s true. I don’t know why. I
would’ve thought the exact opposite.

I imagine you’re much
more tethered to home than ever before.

Yeah. You have a lot less time to do anything besides work on
music and take care of the kid. There are a lot less nights out around NYC and
a lot more 8 am mornings at the park. I spend a lot of time over at the BedStuy [Brooklyn] YMCA. I
really dig that place. They have a great gym and they have the best deal in NYC,
which is a free child watch with your membership, so you can leave your kid in the
play room. It’s really like the greatest deal I’ve ever come across in my life.

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